


Retro and Nostalgia (Coldplay/Muse oneshot)

by cherrylng



Category: Coldplay (Band), Muse (Band)
Genre: Christmas Dinner, Christmas Presents, Established Relationship, Family, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 20:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13418730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylng/pseuds/cherrylng
Summary: “What do you want for Christmas?” “That’s a silly question to ask, Chris. Is it sillier still to say thatall I want for Christmas is you?”





	Retro and Nostalgia (Coldplay/Muse oneshot)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TamarElmensdorp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TamarElmensdorp/gifts).



> For tamarelmensdorp, because I was surprised that I got your prompt and despite having gone through a really bad depression episode and revealed that I got your snowpremacy prompt, I got over that bad episode and powered through finishing this to do it all for you. You’re a good friend, through and through.

Christmas celebrations in LA is somewhat similar to how it is done in England. They both have Christmas songs starting to appear around November. The decorations can suddenly appear on houses and shops and offices as soon as Thanksgiving and Guy Fawkes Night is over in America and Britain, respectively.   
  
And finally, they both don’t have snow, but this is for different reasons. The reason why there’s rarely snow in Britain around Christmas time is because of the country’s mild climate, even when temperatures can reach below zero degrees Celsius. In Los Angeles, California, it’s because it’s too warm for snow to even appear.  
  
Usually for Matt and Chris, they treat it as a casual affair when it comes to Christmas, putting up decorations and preparing for presents and visiting family. For some reason this year, Matt had noticed that Chris is very into the mood for the festivities and work of decorating the house.   
  
Now, this isn’t something for Matt to suspect anything unusual about his boyfriend of two years. Even before, when they were still friends, Matt knows that Chris had always been the more enthusiastic one towards Christmas and its festivities.  
  
However, when a spruce tree appears in their living room for this year, something that Matt had started avoiding to purchase when he got his cats and had gone treeless for years since then, the brunet knows that something very unusual is going on with Chris.  
  
“Are you sure that it’s a good idea to have the tree here when Kim and Kanye rule over this home?” Matt asks, pointing out with his thumb at the cats sleeping under the sunlight while Chris is putting the tinsel on to the tree, sparing the tree from feline abuse for now.  
  
“We won’t put the lights on the tree then,” Chris replies, pauses for a bit, before he adds, “Or the baubles made of glass.”  
  
“And when they climb the tree and it falls over?”  
  
“Got that one covered. Got a sturdier stand with a wider base area to keep the tree stable and standing even with cats in it.”  
  
“Are you  _sure_  of that?”  
  
“Come on, Matt. It’s Christmas,” Chris says in a lighthearted manner. “I won’t blame Kim and Kanye for climbing the tree. They’re cats, after all. Even if the tree will fall over and cause a mess, we’re only keeping it for one month out of twelve. It’s worth the trouble.”  
  
Okay, he can put up with the increase of enthusiasm and the decorations, but the tree is really the final straw from withholding the questions on the tip of his tongue.  
  
“Alright,” Matt starts, finally unable to hold back his curiosity. “What’s gotten you all so excited and more enthusiastic into decorating the house with tinsel and fairy lights all over the place? Even buying a tree?”  
  
Chris takes a break from his decorating chore as he tries to formulate the excuse of what he’s been doing.  
  
“It’s going to sound weird the way I’m saying this—”  
  
“If it is weird, the weirdness phase had already made its pass from me,” Matt deadpans.  
  
“Is it weird that I’m feeling unusually festive and looking forward to Christmas?” Chris asks. “I mean, usually the days up to Christmas I do the routine of doing charity and helping out at the soup kitchen in London. I don’t know why Matt, but… I just feel like I want to have something more for this year’s Christmas. Is it my age that has been affecting my thoughts lately?”  
  
“I think it might be,” Matt grins, deciding to join Chris to help him finish decorating the tree. He starts picking the plastic baubles out of the box and hang it on the branches. “But then again, seeing you like this for the past few days, I’m feeling the same way as you are for it.”  
  
“Even though you’ve been a bit Grinch-like about the tree?”  
  
“Your infectious attitude has made me want to expect more out of this year’s upcoming celebrations.”  
  
As much as Matt has learned to make do without a part of the tradition, he does miss having a decorated tree in the house, bringing back memories from his childhood and often looking forward to the presents under the tree.  
  
They finished decorating the tree by putting a star on the top, with grins on their faces at their accomplishment.  
  
“Since you’re on board with me with a more festive holiday, may I ask what do you want for Christmas?” Chris finally asks to Matt.  
  
“That’s a silly question to ask, Chris. Is it sillier still to say that  _all I want for Christmas is you?_ ” Matt sings, giggling right after that. It only got worse when Chris decides to give him a tickle attack before Chris traps him in a bear hug.  
  
“You can go all Mariah Carey on me later,” Chris chuckles, giving him an eskimo kiss. “I’m asking because I want to make this year’s Christmas a special one for us to celebrate, love. Something to remember when we look back at it.”  
  
“I honestly don’t know, Chris. We’re financially secured and at the age where we can get anything we ever want. So what  _do_  we want for this year’s celebrations?” Matt says, pondering at what and how to make this year’s Christmas different from any other year that they’ve celebrated the holiday.  
  
Chris is wondering the same thing as well, until inspiration struck him.  
  
“Matt, remember as a kid, the one holiday that you can always looked forward to is Christmas?” 

  
Matt nods. “Yes.”  
  
“Do you ever have those times where you asked for stuff that you wanted from Santa or your parents for Christmas but never got it?”  
  
“Well, yes, of course I do,” Matt scoffs, amused. “What kid who celebrates Christmas has never been through that experience at least once while growing up?”  
  
“It sounds silly and materialistic coming from me, but I remember the number of times over the years in my childhood that the kid in me never really had all the stuff that they ever wanted. I still think about those toys and cool gadgets that I could’ve gotten.”  
  
“So your idea for this Christmas to be more exciting is to find those old toys from our childhood that we have wanted so badly to give as presents to each other?”  
  
“It’s something different, but that’s the idea. Let’s make this year’s Christmas a bit more different, more exciting. We don’t have to search and buy  _all_  those toys and gadgets. Just finding one would be fine.”  
  
“That doesn’t sound so bad as an idea, the more I think about it,” Matt says, finding himself liking the idea the more Chris convinced him of it. “Can you tell me what you wanted when you were eight years old?”  
  
He said it so suddenly and in such a casual manner that Chris had almost answered straightaway had he not caught himself in time.  
  
“Almost caught me there,” Chris smirks. “I’m not giving you any spoilers. The big part of the fun for this is going to be what each of us discovered and decided to find and buy as a gift!”  
  
“Are you sure you can’t tell me what eight, maybe nine year old you wanted for Christmas?” Matt questions, still trying to sound casual and not as though he’s cheating right away. But Chris merely gives him a squeezing hug and a pat on his back before letting go.  
  
“We have a few weeks before Christmas,” he says, picking up the box of decorations. ”That should be more than enough time to find out what our childhood wishlist to have under the tree were.”  
  
“You did wanted a game console back then, didn’t you?”  
  
“Not telling!” Chris says cheerfully as he leaves the room with the box in his hands to continue on decorating the house.  
  
Matt curses inwardly. He’d almost had him!  
  
With his failure of catching any information from an unguarded Chris, finding the right gift is going to be harder than he thought.  
  
But that’s alright. That’s fine. There’s several weeks before Christmas and he’s got ample time to do his search.  
  
\-----  
  
“Dom, do you remember as a kid of the toys and gadgets that you’d wanted as Christmas gifts but never ever got them?” Matt asks to Dom while having coffee with the blond drummer at a small cafe.  
  
“Well, of course I do! I remembered wanting a puppy, a bicycle, a game console, a helicopter—”  
  
“You had a dog when you were fourteen, and you had it when it was your sister’s birthday,” Matt snarks before he dodges a sugar packet thrown at him. “I was talking about presents that you wanted so badly but never got it for Christmas and only on that specific holiday.”  
  
Much like Matt and his boyfriend Chris, Dom is planning to spend his Christmas in LA too. For Matt, the reason is to be closer towards his and Chris’ respective children, while Dom is doing it largely out of his own free will and choice.  
  
“I was just playing with you there, Bells. You told me the plan just yesterday. Why buy something that we only would have wanted as kids? Wouldn’t it be much more beneficial to find gifts catered more to your age?”  
  
“It’s something that Chris suggested and I agreed to it,” Matt replies, reminding Dom of the answer once more. “Something of an idea to give us both a trip of childhood nostalgia.”  
  
“So why are you finding it such a hard time to figure it out?” Dom asks, leaning his back against the chair. “After all, we’re practically born in the same generation. For all we know, he could have wanted a SodaStream.”  
  
Matt picks at his sandwich, slowly picking it apart and separating the condiments from the bread.  
  
“That’s the thing. When it comes to toys that we wanted, it’s pretty easy to pick out the obvious ones that I can pick off my head. But then comes those little differences here and there. The ones that makes you know that someone  _knows_  about your interests enough and what you like to have bought it as a present for you no matter what the age that you are right now. Like what if you’d wanted a huge train set rather than a bicycle? Or a computer?”  
  
“Let’s just focus back on the toys. I wasn’t crazy for train sets and I doubt that by now that some absurdly expensive and heavy computer manufactured in the 80’s would still hold the allure it had back then,” Dom says.  
  
“Are you now starting to see how hard this actually is?” Matt groans, putting his face to his hands and his voice gets muffled. “He’s telling me nothing and I have to figure this all out by myself.”  
  
“Cheer up, Matt, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. Maybe somebody is auctioning it on Ebay. Or if auctioning websites don’t sell it, you can find one in any one of those charity or secondhand shops instead.”  
  
“Tried,” Matt sulks. “The auctioning sites aren’t the best places to find what I’m looking for and the stores don’t have toys  _that_  old while I was in London  _and_  Exeter a week ago. Unless you count the Tonka trucks.”  
  
“Those toy trucks are pretty indestructible and can outlast anything,” Dom concedes. “You sure that Chris doesn’t want a Tonka truck from the 80’s?”  
  
“I asked him.” When Dom raised an eyebrow at the answer that is contradictory to what he’d just said previously, Matt sighs. “He was with me one time at a store that had the toy trucks. He told me he had a few of those, but it wasn’t his big interest.”  
  
The blond drummer makes a face. He can understand the trouble that Matt is going through, as he has several friends who are avid collectors for old items such as vinyls or classical cars. In Dom’s opinion, it’s not necessary to have the originals. Sure, it would be nice to get the original, authentic item if you manage to find it, but it doesn’t mean that it’s far better than the revised versions that are available these days.  
  
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be the authentic product,” Dom says. “There have been retro stuff from the 80’s being on sale thanks to the value of nostalgia. I’m sure a modern variation of it works just as well if he doesn’t mind that it’s not authentic. And probably even better than the original too.”  
  
“I’ll have to settle for that option when it comes to be the only one. It’s really hard to find out the right gift that he would have loved as a child and still do today.” Matt is starting to contemplate on what Dom said before about the Tonka trucks and wonders if Chris had been lying to him and actually had some sort of collection of toy cars when he was a young boy.  
  
“I don’t know all the answers that you need right now, Matt,” Dom says, exasperated. “Why don’t you call and ask his parents about it?”  
  
A look of sudden realisation and comprehension appears on Matt’s face. How can he be so stupid? It’s something that is so simple to be done that he’d overlooked it while spending time going through the trouble of doing this all by himself.  
  
“You are a genius, Dom,” Matt grins.  
  
“No, just your best friend and constant minder,” Dom snarks in reply and shaking his head while Matt pulls his phone out and search for their contact number. Of course Matt had overlooked something that could have solved his problem earlier on.  
  
\-----  
  
Matt puts on the oven mitts as he opens the oven to give a visual check on the goose roasting in there. They opted out turkey in favour of goose as they aren’t that many people who are going to eat the whole bird and goose is smaller than turkey.  
  
“Is the goose going to be well done in time?” Chris asks.  
  
Matt takes a peek at the goose.  
  
“Yes, it’s coming to a golden brown and the Yorkshire pudding is rising up nicely in there too,” Matt says. “Dinner will be ready soon.”  
  
The children are staying over for today at Christmas as they have stayed the night before with their respective mothers for Christmas Eve, so he and Chris have been busy preparing the big feast in the kitchen. Chris can help in the kitchen, just so long as someone is supervising him on whatever task that he is assigned to.  
  
From down the hallway, Matt can hear Apple playing the piano, his ears picking up the sound of her slowly improving and showing that she has the potential for music if she were to continue on and be able to pursue it as a career.   
  
He recognises the song that Apple is playing is from the composer Yann Tiersen, and he can’t help but feel a surge of pride bubbling within himself. He’d introduced to her the French composer a couple of years ago and she took to his works like a fish in water.  
  
Having being with Chris for two years and going, that paternal, fatherly part of him has also extended onto Chris’ children as well as it is vice versa for Chris towards Bing.   
  
Since the kids have only arrived this afternoon, they have decided to move the present opening time to the evening after dinner instead. Where the kids will get to see them opening up gifts containing toys rather than the usual items associated with being adults.  
  
Of course, knowing that with having children, both Chris and Matt have brought presents for them as well. They’re still fathers, after all.  
  
And of course, since they can only open their presents after dinner, it took some coaxing to have them all to stay at the table until they finish their Christmas dinner  _and_ dessert. But there wasn’t much trouble in convincing the three children to have their dinner properly.  
  
“We get to have presents on the morning  _and_  the evening of Christmas!” Moses says. “This is the best Christmas we ever have! Can we have another Christmas like this, dad?”  
  
“It sounds like a good idea. We’ll see to it for the next year,” Chris answers, keeping his words vague and cryptic.  
  
“I hear that you and uncle Matt have presents for each other,” Apple says while mixing the vegetables on her plate with gravy. “Do we get to see toys from the Eighties, dad? Can we have a look at it too?”  
  
“Now who told you that?” Matt asks, suspicious.  
  
“Mom told us about it,” she replies.  
  
Matt turns to look at Chris.  
  
“I wasn’t hiding the fact that I was very excited about the plan for Christmas while I was at Gwyn’s place days ago,” Chris admits. “And she asked me what was going on with me.”  
  
“Didn’t Santa bring presents for you and Uncle Chris too, dad?” Bing asks, confused. “Why did you have to buy it?”  
  
Luckily, Matt has an answer saved up for such a situation.   
  
“Well, this is something much more special between us, Bing. We had to tell Santa not to poke his nose into it.”  
  
“But wouldn’t Santa have brought you  _all_  the toys that you ever wanted as a kid?”  
  
“We’ve grown up, Bing. Some of the toys that we used to want would no longer be cool to us anymore,” Matt points out. “But, that doesn’t mean we won’t like what’s under the tree for us.”  
  
“Oh, okay then,” Bing says. “We get to see toys from your time, right dad?”  
  
“Right you are,” Matt nods. “Now come on, eat up or else we won’t be anytime close to opening the presents under the tree.”  
  
Once they have finished their dinner and put the leftovers away, it was finally time for the highlight of the day. The children are the first to reach the living room and with the boys already searching for their presents when for some reason, Apple stopped them from doing that.  
  
“We have to let dad and Uncle Matt open their presents first,” she says. It sounds odd to both Matt and Chris, as usually the children are the first to go after their presents before the parents and other adults do.  
  
“Why do we have to do that?” Moses whines, frowning.  
  
“Because we already opened half of the presents that we have today from this morning. We can wait to open the other half,” Apple replies, giving a reasonable answer.  
  
“You’re just saying that because you want to see what they got for each other,” Moses points out.  
  
“No, that’s what  _you_  think of as  _your_  reason.”  
  
“I am not!”  
  
“You so are!”  
  
“How about we open our presents right now and then you can open yours?” Chris cuts in before brother and sister would go further into the argument. “After all, it’s not as if your Christmas presents will run off and hide if you don’t get to them now.”  
  
“Okay, dad,” Moses concedes defeat, much to Apple’s elation.  
  
“So what did you and Uncle Matt got for each other, dad?” Apple asks her father.  
  
“Well, we’re going to open our presents soon and find out!” Chris picks up a large box from the tree and hands it to Matt. “This is my Christmas gift to you, Matt.”  
  
Matt examines the red and blue rectangular shaped present in his hands. The present is physically bigger than the one Matt had prepared for Chris. Not that size matters or something right now.  
  
“Go on. Open mine first!” Chris says when Matt looks at him, his grin bright and excitement infectious.  
  
Matt starts to rip the wrapping paper off and find out what Chris had picked for him. It’s a toy robot with weapon parts included for it. But further inspection leads Matt to realise what and  _who_  this robot is, and bring back a particular memory from when he was around nine years old, and a big smile comes to his face.  
  
“It’s Computron!”  
  
“What’s a Computron?” Bing asks, just as curious as Apple and Moses are.  
  
“Computron is from the original series of Transformers! He’s an Autobot! I remember wanting one so badly when I was nine and I first saw the show on telly. I wanted to be the first to have Computron before the other kids did from the toy stores or catalogues because Transformers wasn’t that well known yet.”  
  
Matt lets out a giggle and smiles. “I sound like a hipster right now.”  
  
“You were a hipster before that word even had the meaning it has today,” Chris teases.  
  
“Thank you, Chris,” Matt says, looking up to him grinning ear to ear. “This means a lot to me.”  
  
He puts the Autobot toy by the side of the sofa and picked up a box from the tree. Finally, it’s time to present his gift to Chris.  
  
“And here is yours.” Matt presents a box wrapped in purple wrapping paper and a dark red ribbon.  
  
“So what’s in my present then?” Chris says out loud as he starts to peel the wrapping paper apart.  
  
Matt doesn’t answer that, opting to keep on smiling. Although he has confidence that Chris will like it, nonetheless he does worry if his gift counts as not putting much effort into what he did to find it.  
As soon as the wrapping paper is all peeled off, Apple is the first to notice what it is.  
  
“Woah, it’s a star light projector!” Apple exclaims. “That is so cool!”  
  
The kids are crowding around Chris, staring at the box containing said ‘cool’ light projector.  
  
“What made you choose this for me?” Chris asks, curious.  
  
“I… actually cheated,” Matt admits, his eyes looking away from Chris as he gives his explanation. “I asked your mum and dad about what your favourite thing was when you were a kid, and they told me that you had this obsession for stars and astronomy. I didn’t know what is the best item that could go with what they told me aside for a telescope, so this was the next best thing.”  
  
“See the stars and the Milky Way galaxy right in your bedroom,” Chris murmurs, reading aloud from the advertisement of the box before his lips break into a huge grin when he turns to Matt. “This is an amazing gift, Matt. And I don’t count that as cheating. I didn’t expect that my mum and dad still remembered that I loved astronomy when I was young.”  
  
“I got stuck in a rut and needed help at the end.”  
  
“That’s really sweet of you, Uncle Matt,” Apple says, smiling. “What you and dad have planned for each other is like giving a good glimpse of your childhoods.”  
  
“And it’s cool!” Moses adds in.  
  
“Yeah, it’s cool!” Bing says, agreeing as well.  
  
“Yeah, it is,” Matt grins.  
  
And right after they’re done admiring the presents that they have in their hands, the kids start to go after their own presents to find out what Santa or, to be more accurate, their fathers have prepared for them.  
  
\-----  
  
It took some time to wrangle the kids to bed. Both Chris and Matt have figured out early on in raising their children up is that it was a lot easier to let them be and allow the fullness from eating a huge Christmas dinner to work its magic. Once they have tired themselves out, it didn’t take much to convince them of washing up and going off to sleep.   
  
Chris took Apple while Matt has Moses and Bing as the two boys are sharing a room together, making sure that they have brushed their teeths and washed themselves up before getting them to bed.  
  
“Had a good Christmas today?” Matt asks the two boys as they settle themselves into their beds.  
  
“Yeah we did, dad,” Bing answers, pulling the duvet up to his chest and his stuffed toy animal in his arm. “Uncle Chris gave you a really cool present today.”  
  
“So you think that Computron is a cool Autobot toy to have then?” Matt smiles.  
  
“Computron is pretty cool, even if he’s old,” Moses says, putting his phone to the charger.  
  
“Well, Computron  _is_  an old Transformers character nowadays, much like me.”  
  
“You may be old, but it’s still cool that you like toys like we do, dad,” Bing manages to say before a big yawn appears. He turns to look at Matt. “Can we play with Computron tomorrow, dad? He can play with the other action figures who are good guys too.”  
  
“Sure you can, Bing, Moses,” Matt says with a big grin on his face, rustling both Bing and Moses’ hairs before standing up and turning off the main lights. “Remember to turn off the lamp before going to sleep, alright?”  
  
“We will, Uncle Matt.” “We will, dad.” Moses and Bing answered at the same time.   
  
“Goodnight, boys.”  
  
“Goodnight, dad.”  
  
Matt tries not to smile too hard from hearing being called dad by both boys.  
  
After putting Moses and Bing to bed, Matt finally goes to the master bedroom. Opening the door, he sees that the room is dark save for the light coming from the light projector, illuminating the whole room in bright dots and the occasional bright flare of colour. Sitting on the center of the bed, Chris is staring at the illuminated starry room with wonder.  
  
“Already taken the lamp out and putting it on, I see,” Matt says, grinning as he walks towards the bed.  
  
“It’s beautiful though, isn’t it?” Chris asks back, smiling warmly.  
  
“Yeah, it is,” Matt goes to change his clothes into a loose T-shirt and yoga trousers before climbing into bed. “If ten year old you sees it, I can imagine the look of wonder on his face having this lamp in the bedroom.”  
  
“Forty year old me still thinks it’s cool to see it now.” Sitting up straighter, Chris pulls Matt in close by the shoulder. “This really is an amazing Christmas present, Matt. I love it.”  
  
“If I could have had the time and resources, I would have bought you the authentic ones manufactured in the 1980’s.”  
  
“I think those wouldn’t have been as good as the modern version. It wouldn’t have looked as magnificent as what this lamp can do.”   
  
Looking at it, Matt must concede that Chris is right. Instead of warm yellow lighting that lights up the bedroom, the lamp not only shows the dotted stars in warm lighting, but also what looks like gas clouds in shades of red and blue and violet and green, some stars are clustered closer together than others. It is a beautiful sight to see surrounding the bedroom walls and ceiling.  
  
“As great as it is to view this all in our bedroom, you know what could be better?” Matt suggests. “We could go to somewhere for a holiday, somewhere where we can see the stars at night just with our naked eyes. See the Milky Way for real.”  
  
That got Chris’ attention, the blue eyes staring at Matt are sparkling with joy at the idea of going somewhere far from civilisation, star gazing under the dark skies with their naked eyes.  
  
“Do you want to?”  
  
“I’m the one who suggested it,” Matt playfully jabs him by the arm. “Once we’ve done the research of where the best places are to see it, we definitely will be going there.”  
  
Chris wraps his arms around Matt before pulling him towards his lips.   
  
“That is a wonderful idea.”  
  
“I always have wonderful ideas.”  
  
“Hmm, maybe.”  
  
“What do you mean by  _maybe_?” Matt squawks.  
  
Chris grins as he intentionally kisses Matt this time to stop any arguments before it could start.  
  
Matt is huffing indignantly, but he doesn’t pull away either. After what has happened today, Matt is more than alright being swept up by any romantic gestures, kissing back long enough for his tongue to have managed to worm its way into Chris’ mouth for a far more intimate kiss. When they pull back, breathless and blue eyes looking at one another intensely, they both share a smile.  
  
“Merry Christmas, love.”  
  
“Happy Christmas to you, Chris.”


End file.
